This book explores the significance of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott’s ideas for contemporary debates about care. Locating Winnicott in relation to a range of fields, including psychology, philosophy, sociology, critical theory and feminist theory, it examines the implications of his thinking for understanding and transforming the relationship between care and society. Winnicott was unique amongst psychoanalysts for the emphasis he placed on care in the development of subjectivity. The book unpacks Winnicott’s understanding of care and assesses its relevance for conceptions of social responsibility, justice and transformation. In a world where care is in crisis, how might we theorise the conditions necessary for the development of caring subjectivities, and is it possible to infer a relationship between those conditions and progressive social change? This unique book will be of interest to readers in psychosocial studies, politics and anyone concerned with thinking about the relationship between care and social transformation.
Author(s): Joanna Kellond
Series: Studies in the Psychosocial
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 263
City: London
Acknowledgements
Contents
1 Introduction: Winnicott and the Politics of Care
Winnicott Now
Winnicott and the Politics of Care
Theories, Methodologies, Outline
References
2 Healthy Life: Care, Cura and Flourishing
“Healthy Life”
The Capacity for Concern
Flourishing and Society
References
3 Oedipus and Capitalism: Denying Dependence, Effacing Care
Capitalism, the Family and the Privatisation of Dependence
Subjectivity, Separation and the Denial of Dependence
Ways Out: Towards a New Symbolic
References
4 Caring States: Maternal Care, Holding and Social Provision
Maternal Thinking and the Longing for Care
Holding and Society
Maternal Attitudes and Caring States
References
5 Care, Power, Justice
Capacities, Care and Justice
Subjectivity and Power
Justice, Capacities and the Organisation of Care
References
6 Attacks on Holding
Changing Structures of Care
Traumatogenic Environments and Careless Subjects
Caring Relationships in an Uncaring World
References
7 The Politics of Holding
Holding and Growth
The Radical Politics of Holding-Care
A Psychosocial Argument
References
References
Index
